Commercial king mackerel season temporarily reopens Nov. 1

BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced the commercial season for king mackerel in Louisiana waters previously closed on Sept. 20 will re-open at 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 1 until 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 3 at which time the season will close and remain closed through June 30, 2014.

The re-opening was made based on data gathered by LDWF biologists and the National Marine Fisheries Service that the annual quota for king mackerel of 1.07 million pounds for the western zone of the Gulf of Mexico has been under harvested by approximately 80,000 pounds.

While there are relatively few king mackerel harvested or targeted by Louisiana recreational anglers, a substantial commercial fishery does exist which typically lands 800 to 900 thousand pounds annually at Louisiana ports.